Yarn feeds Museum of Contemporary Craft works

From Mandy Greer's "Dare alla Luce" show at the Museum of Contemporary Craft.

Mandy Greer's fascinating work blending crochet, braiding, sewing and beading -- her "Dare alla Luce" exhibit -- opens at the Museum of Contemporary Craft today (running Jan. 22 - May 31). The museum also has Portland artist Sarah Fox's jewelry of sterling silver and felted merino wool to check out in its Gallery.

Greer's exhibit, according to the museum's Web site: "Translated from Italian, 'dare alla luce' is an idiomatic expression for giving birth: 'to give to the light.'" The exhibit, it says, draws on "late Renaissance artist Jacopo Tintoretto's painting The Origin of the Milky Way for inspiration," in Greer's interpretation of a Roman myth about the creation of the galaxy. "Greer employs humble handicraft processes and materials, executing her work through crochet, braiding, sewing and beading processes that use yarn, beads, shells, feathers and more. Merging the mythical and the mundane, Greer collapses the language and materials of the ordinary with the spectacular and the epic. The resulting work intertwines objects and space, resulting in an exuberant, sensual and visceral installation." For more on the exhibit, go to the museum's Web site..

Along with the exhibit opening, the museum will host a "Crafts Perspective Panel" with curators Stefano Catalani and Namita Gupta Wiggers talking to artists Greer and Darrel Morris "to discuss the juxtaposition of their current exhibits and what that reveals about contemporary craft today. 6:30 p.m. tonight (Thursday, Jan. 22), at the museum. The talk is $5, free for members and students with ID. Visit the Web site for more information.

Sarah Fox and one of her unique jewelry designs.

Fox's "irreverent and elegant jewelry" is constructed of colored designs in soft felt in durable three-dimensional shapes. According to Fox's Web page, she "was selected by the American Craft Council as one of 20 searchlight artists of 2008. The Gallery at Museum of Contemporary Craft is the only ongoing location where her works are available for purchase."
You can learn more about her at her Web page, sarahfoxdesign.com.